Perhaps the most bizarre request
of the still young 2014 political season comes from The Weather Channel, which
is asking people to call their congressmen and senators to demand Congress
intervene in the battle between it and DirecTV.

DirecTV and The Weather Channel have been in a dispute
over whether the satellite service provider will carry the NBC Universal-owned channel. Many DirecTV customers nationwide will
lose their access to The Weather Channel as early as Tuesday if a negotiation
is not reached by then.

Since the negotiations have not
gone anywhere, officials at The Weather Channel have turned to asking viewers
to contact Congress to ask the legislative body to intervene. The heart of The
Weather Channel's argument is that service with the channel is a matter of life
and death for viewers.

"Starting today, The Weather
Channel will begin asking DIRECTV viewers and all Weather Channel supporters to
call their Representative and Senators in Washington and ask them to help keep
this critical public safety resource in the DIRECTV lineup,” The Weather
Channel said in a press release. “Given the increasing frequency and severity
of weather-related emergencies across the country, access to timely and
accurate weather information is imperative for public safety and, therefore, an
issue meriting Congressional attention.”

Frequently throughout the press
release, The Weather Channel argues that it provides a “critical public safety
role.”

"The campaign, aimed at
demonstrating the critical public safety role of The Weather Channel, will be
supported by a multifaceted direct-to-consumer campaign that will include
advertising on The Weather Channel, weather.com and on The Weather Channel’s
mobile apps,” it said.

The campaign has involved the
creation of a website that can generate letters to members of Congress, a
hotline phone number, and even responding to posts by members of Congress like
Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) on Facebook. The Weather Channel has also been
broadcasting phone numbers for members of Congress on its television station,
advising viewers to call in about the issue.

However, there is just one major
problem with The Weather Channel’s massive new public campaign for congressional
support. Notwithstanding how Americans of all different beliefs probably do not
want Congress to pick and choose what is on TV, there is nothing Congress can
officially do to help them – even if it wanted to intervene.

Reached by phone late Monday evening,
The Weather Channel CEO David Kenny confirmed that there is actually nothing
Congress can do to force DirecTV to carry the channel. He said what his company
is more interested in doing with this public pressure campaign is to try to get
members of Congress to talk about The Weather Channel and large
telecommunications industry issues.

Kenny said in a phone interview
with Breitbart News:

Listen, I think a member of
Congress has to be informed because they work to make sure whether constituents
are safe in their district. What they can do is bear in mind as they – I don’t
think they can get involved in this specific dispute. I think they can get
involved in the broader issue of whether a large distributor should be picking
on these independent networks and small networks that provide good service to
people, which is inadvertently causing consolidation in the industry. I think
there’s a real question about whether they’re suppressing our weather science.
There’s a real question about them arbitrarily setting a price well below the
market rate and being bullies because of their market power. That goes well
beyond us, just looking at the industry structure. The way telecommunications
and satellites are dealt with right now is certainly on the agenda. The
Telecommunications Act is being rewritten and I think this important context
for them in that light. So I think they’re going to look at the public good,
instead of looking at this as a business issue itself.

Kenny added that he views his
channel as a public service but that he is not trying to push new legislation
and does not think new laws would be an answer to his problems.

Kenny said:

I think we absolutely serve the
public. I think we absolutely have a history of working with NOAA and the National
Weather Service and a deep communications platform that took decades to build
and millions of dollars, which is a public service. I am not after changing law
just for us. That wasn’t the intention. But I do think that there’s a public
good because we are used by emergency management organizations at the local,
state and federal level, because we are used by military organizations, we are
used by humanitarian organizations. They all understand they’re going to lose
access to this outlet to communicate this message. But I don’t necessarily
think a legislative solution is the answer. It’s pertinent that DirecTV
understand the responsibility they have within the law that’s already passed to
serve the public. They’re very focused on their football, and the money they’re
spending on that, and that’s discounting the rest of their responsibility as a
carrier. I think particularly in rural areas, this is where you really only
have satellite as a choice, it’s very dangerous if they’re making arbitrary
programming decisions against anything that’s news and information related. I
think reminding them of their responsibilities is key. We’re not after new
legislation.

From its end, DirecTV has launched
an alternative service called WeatherNation to provide people with weather news
coverage. Even so, a press release from DirecTV states it remains in
negotiations with The Weather Channel at this point.

“We remain in discussions with The
Weather Channel on how to provide its service to our customers at the best
value since people now use so many other ways to retrieve weather-related
information,” DirecTV said. “We launched WeatherNation (DIRECTV channel 361) as
an alternative to provide 24/7 hard news weather coverage in response to
numerous customer complaints that more than 40 percent of The Weather Channel’s
programming is dedicated to reality television shows. DIRECTV also offers
city-by-city weather coverage on more than 1,400 local broadcast stations and
on DIRECTV’s emergency channels in times of severe weather.”

Weather Channel

NBCUniversal
acquired the Weather Channel, and a
partner with the Sundance Channel.

Note: Robert Redford is
a partner with the Sundance Channel,
the founder & president for the Sundance
Institute, and a trustee at the Natural
Resources Defense Council.

Jeff
Zucker was the president & CEO for NBCUniversal,
and is a director at the Robin Hood
Foundation.

Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Sundance Institute, the Natural
Resources Defense Council, the Robin
Hood Foundation, the Committee for
Economic Development, and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).

George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.

John
L. Thornton is the chair for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), a director at HSBC Holdings plc, and was a director at DIRECTV.

John J.
Studzinski was the co-head of investment banking for HSBC Holdings plc, is a director at the Human Rights Watch, a director at the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), and a papal knighthood knight.

George
Soros was a benefactor for the Human
Rights Watch, and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.

Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank).

The power of the press can be
used to deliberately lead people astray, and to make them believe whatever
propagandists want them to believe. In honor of the first man to use them I
call modern propaganda and information-management techniques "Hitler's
Legacy".

When Adolph Hitler took power in Germany
he also took over the media, and he used it to shape a modern, civilized
country to his ends. With full control of the national press his propaganda
minister Paul Josef Goebbels developed sophisticated and very effective tools
of propaganda to control public opinion in Germany, and even in other
countries.

He proved that if you repeat a
lie often enough in mass media, most people will accept it as the truth.

Richard R. Burt
was a U.S. ambassador for Germany,
and is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank).

Rozanne L. Ridgway
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think
tank), and was a U.S.
ambassador for Germany.

Adolf
Hitler was the fuhrer for Germany,
and the leader of the Nazi Party.

No comments:

Sam on Bob Harden Show

Who Is Aristotle the Hun

"Aristotle the Hun" was the name given to me more than 30 years ago when a friend noticed that in spite of my intellect I was still an Iowa farm boy.

Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

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Quotation Gallery

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."- St. Augustine

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."-- Edward Abbey

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."John Stuart Mill

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"Albert Einstein

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANON

"That government is best which governs least."Thomas Paine

“A nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,”Congressman Steve King (R-IA),

INTEGRITY: The highest courage is to dare to be ourself in the face of adversity. Choosing ethics over convenience and truth over popularity means there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." ANON

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The government is conspiring against the citizens. The citizens have pitchforks, torches, tea bags, tea parties, Grand Juries and the Constitution. The government doesn't stand a chance!

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The famous Chapter 16 from "I Fired My Doctors" thathas become a "best seller" as a separate publication.

"The stress management chapter alone is worth the price of the book.”
Selwyn Mills, PhD